Spotlight: International Outreach: The Other Georgia
President George W. Bush’s recent visit to the Republic of Georgia brought worldwide attention to its relatively new commitment to democracy. For more than four years, the Vinson Institute’s International Center for Democratic Governance (ICDG) has been in partnership with the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA) in Tbilisi to provide officials in that country with instruction in current public administration practices.
The “Rose Revolution” in Georgia brought into office large numbers of local government officials and administrators, most of whom had little formal training in public affairs, explains Dan Durning, ICDG program director. “With support of a grant, we have been able to bring to their program instructors for graduate-level public administration courses and for training local officials,” he adds. “Our goal now is to help GIPA administrators map out a plan for their program to be sustainable and successful after the time that outside funding is no longer available.”
In late April, Maka Ioseliani, GIPA dean; and Kate Natriashvili, local governance center coordinator; visited the Vinson Institute and the University of Georgia to study governmental training and higher education administration. Ioseliani also presented a lecture outlining some of the challenges of educating people for the public sector in the Republic of Georgia.
